Nasha Russia (, literally "Our Russia") is a Russian sketch show based on the British comedy show Little Britain, created by Comedy Club Production. It was written by former KVN players and producers Semyon Slepakov, Garik Martirosyan and Ilya Romanko. A 2010 film was made based on the characters in the show titled Our Russia. The Balls of Fate.
Content
The name of the show references the fact that while the name of the country is pronounced "Rossiya" in Russian, foreigners pronounce it "Russia," or as the show emphasizes, "RASHA." Thus to native Russian speakers the name of the show is, "OUR RASHA." The shows offers social and political satire of everyday life in modern-day Russia. The premise is that although Russian people recognize that many aspects of their society are in a poor state ripe for comedy, they are still proud to live in their country, hence the title of the show ("Our Russia"). Each episode features a unique introductory monologue that describes this concept. The following was used in the first episode:
Personalities
Ravshan and Jamshut
Ravshan and Jamshut (Равшан и Джамшут), the most popular characters of the sketch show, are gastarbeiters from Tajikistan. They work for their boss Leonid in Moscow and call him "nasäĺnika" (Russian: насяльника, mispronounced word "начальник" - boss). Ravshan does all the talking in bad Russian while Jamshut is silent for the most part, presumably because he does not understand Russian. The workers' job is to make building repairs in typical Russian apartments, but something goes wrong every time because they're terrible at their jobs and generally foolish, which is satirizing the current state of general disrepair in many Soviet-era buildings throughout Russia. They act like buffoons in front of their boss, who always gets so frustrated that he calls them idiots before storming out.
Ivan Dulin and Mikhalych
Ivan Dulin (Иван Дулин) is the first homosexual milling-machine operator in Russia. He works at the Chelyabinsk steel factory number 69 (the show's creators originally wanted to depict factory number 68, which actually exists, but the factory's manager refused to have it on the show; he said that there are no gays at his factory). Ivan Dulin is in love with his boss Mikhalych (Михалыч is a patronymic, his first and last names vary from season to season), who is heterosexual and refuses to sleep with Dulin. The gay miller constantly comes up with clever plots to seduce Mikhalych, but fails. At the end of most sketches, some factory workers walk in on Dulin and Mikhalych's quarrels and assume they are having sexual intercourse.
Sergey Belyakov
Sergey Yurievich Belyakov (Сергей Юрьевич Беляков) lives in Taganrog and likes to argue with his TV every evening. He is very critical of the shows he watches and always makes fun of celebrities and news reports. On nights when his wife is not at home, Belyakov sometimes watches pornography, which he also makes fun of. In the third season, he watches TV with his son, to whom he attempts to explain the shows they watch.
F.C. Gazmyas
Football club "Gazmyas" (Russian: Газмяс, or "Gasmeat") from Omsk plays in the Fourth Division and badly loses every one of their games. Their coach Evgeny Mikhailovich Kishelsky (Евгений Михайлович Кишельский) is a sadist. He enjoys beating the players up after every game, coming close to killing their goalkeeper Gatalsky (Гатальский) and forward Prokopenko (Прокопенко). "Gazmyas" is a parody of Russian football, but after the Russia national football team's EURO-2008 success, the "Gazmyas" part of the show was largely removed and jokes about Russian football in general became less common. In the third season, the team gets kicked out from the Fourth Division and becomes "Omskaya Gazmyasochka" when Kishelsky dresses his players up like women in the hopes of playing against women's teams and thus winning. However, this plan does not work either and the team still loses all of their games.
Ludwig Aristarkhovich
The concierge Ludwig Aristarkhovich (Людвиг Аристархович) lives in Saint Petersburg. Unlike all other Petersburgians, who are considered very polite and civilized, Ludwig Aristarkhovich is an elderly security guard at an apartment building who plays nasty tricks on the tenants. These tricks include leaving excrement at people's doorsteps and writing inappropriate graffiti on the walls. It's his way of avenging petty injustices, such as people not wiping their shoes before entering the building.